Ecclesiastes 3:19-21
Easy-to-Read Version
19 The same thing happens to animals and to people—they die. People and animals have the same ‘breath.’[a] Is a dead animal different from a dead person? It is all so senseless! 20 The bodies of people and animals end the same way. They came from the earth, and, in the end, they will go back to the earth. 21 Who knows what happens to a person’s spirit? Who knows if a human’s spirit goes up to God while an animal’s spirit goes down into the ground?”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ecclesiastes 3:19 breath Or “spirit.”
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21
New International Version
19 Surely the fate of human beings(A) is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath[a]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.(B) 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward(C) and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 3:19 Or spirit
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